Forever Is A Long Time Coming
by Starfighter Stories
Summary: Life goes on in the arcade and the internet as two best friends traverse the ups and downs of life together. A slice of life fic post WIR 2. Beware of spoilers.
1. Insecruity

Insecurity

Ralph's awareness of his insecurity has gone a long way to help him solve his problems, but the road ahead is long. The good news is, he's not alone.

It had been a month since Ralph almost broke the internet and things had gotten easier without Vanellope around, marginally anyway. They still talked two or three times a week, depending on how busy she was over in Slaughter Race. In the meantime, Ralph kept to his routine as best as he could. It kept his mind off the sting in his chest whenever he noticed the little weight on his shoulders had become accustomed to was no longer there.

There were still times during his day, whether being thrown from the Nicelander's building or lying in his bed at night, trying to go to sleep, when his insecurities would whisper in his ear, reminding him of what he had done to his best friend. These moments of darkness were always quick and fleeting, running across his mind like the tip of a knife, leaving behind the faintest sensation of the pain he'd felt when he had accidentally listened in on the fateful conversation between Shank and Vanellope, learning that she wanted to stay in Slaughter Race.

Most nights he was able to banish these thoughts on his own, reminding himself that Vanellope was still his best friend. He could still see her, he could still talk to her and most importantly she was happy. The players of Slaughter Race loved her, when Ralph passed by Knowsmore's booth, he often saw people searching up Sugar Rush, Vanellope and Lit Wak's Arcade, which was now the only place in the world with an operational Sugar Rush game. Yesss had reported some resistance to her sudden addition to the game, noting a small influx in video essays about their dissatisfaction with Slaughter Race and its 'new' direction. Despite the pushback, it seemed that Vanellope was there to stay and he was happy about that, truly he was.

There were some nights though, like this one, where her absence took a greater toll on him than normal. Sometimes, after a day of being crushed by teenagers trying to beat each other's high scores, he would give Vanellope a call just to hear her voice or make her laugh but there were some nights where she would be out racing or hanging out with her fellow princesses and he would need to find another way to cope with the thoughts crawling around inside his head. On these night's he was grateful he still had someone who loved Root Beer as much as did.

Ralph and Felix sat at their favorite spot in Tappers. Second bar from the screen, which gave them a great view of the night sky and sleepy neighborhood just outside the arcade they called home. On the edges of the screen, the glow of their home game could be seen on the left and on the right, the eerie reds and blues of Pac-Man. Felix hummed an improvised tune as he sipped on his root beer while Ralph downed the last of his mug before sending it to join the three at the end of the bar, waiting to be collected by Tapper.

"Thanks for hanging out with me tonight Felix," Ralph said with a grateful smile.

"Of course, partner." The Handyman replied, setting down his mug and turning himself towards Ralph.

"I know you and Tamora are celebrating your anniversary tonight, so when you need to go home, just let me know."

"That won't be for a while, Tamora is helping the new racers with their orientation. They have to build their carts and run practice races all through the night, so they'll be ready for tomorrow."

"Does she always help with that?" Ralph asked, signaling to Tapper to bring him another root beer.

"We switch off, she takes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I take Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. You only really need one person, just helps keep everything organized." He explained, waving to Sonic as he walked into the bar.

"That's cool, must be strange for her. Going from shooting cy-bugs all day to helping little kids learn how to drive all night."

"She loves it actually. Party of her backstory was that she was in the Engineering Corps. So, she'll give the kids tips on how to make their carts more aerodynamic and she's completely reworked Vanellope's castle. All the carts are in one big hangar bay with an access road that leads right to the track. Cuts down on loading times and we don't have to mess with the code. Players are pretty happy with it." Felix said before taking a sip from his root beer. "How's Vanellope anyway? She doing alright? Tamora and I have been wondering."

Ralph sighed as he picked up his root beer, starting dejectedly into the foam.

"She's good, I haven't talked to her this week because a new section of the game was just unlocked, and they've been swamped with players and events but the last time I talked to her she seemed pretty happy. She was telling me about all the new friend's she's made and how she's even shattered a few course records in the Downtown region. Shank has been trying to get her back for that, but she keeps coming up a few seconds too short. Vanellope said she didn't even have to glitch either!"

"That's fantastic!"

"Right?! She was grinning from ear to ear when she told me."

Felix was beaming with pride as was Ralph, but his smile quickly faded. Felix's gaze shifted from one of happiness to one of concern.

"How about you Ralph? How are you?" He asked.

"I'm…I'm ok. It's just hard, you get so used to seeing someone every day and then all of sudden it seems like life just comes along and takes them away. I know it probably sounds selfish but it sucks, but that's just life, I guess. I just hope this will get easier."

Felix's brow furrowed as he tapped on his root beer a few times before speaking.

"I can't say it will Ralph, I don't think I will ever be able to truly understand how you feel because I never experienced anything like what you've gone through. Well…actually…"

"What?" Ralph asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I remember a few months after we started dating, Tamora and I-"

Ralph seemed alarmed by the comparison.

"Well Vanellope and I aren't romantically involved, I mean she's a kid-"

Felix shook his head rapidly and stood up on the bar stool to meet his friend's gaze.

"No no, I know, but romantic love isn't the only kind of love Ralph. The love between friends is incredibly powerful, something you and Vanellope have demonstrated time and time again, so just hear me out. Ok?" Ralph nodded, and Felix sat back down.

"So one night, Tamora and I got in an argument. I honestly can't remember what it was about, it happened years ago but I do remember that she stopped coming over to stay the night-"

"Whoa, she stayed the night before you two were married? I always thought that you were more, uh traditional."

"We didn't do anything scandalous Ralph, get your mind out of the gutter!" Felix protested, his cheeks beet red as Ralph put his hands up in self-defense.

"Sorry, sorry continue."

"Now where was I, uh, oh yeah! She stopped seeing me for an entire week and I was miserable. I couldn't focus on anything, I couldn't eat, I could barely sleep, I saw her everywhere I went, it was awful."

"You saw her everywhere you went? How so?" Ralph pondered.

"I somehow, after dodging an attack from you, mistook Gene for her," Felix admitted, hanging his head in shame.

"Gene?!" Ralph asked, struggling not to laugh.

"Gene," Felix confirmed, shaking his head with a chuckle as he took off his hat and set it on the bar. The two looked at one another before bursting out into laughter.

"Did he realize what was going on?" Ralph managed to ask.

"Only after I called him my dynamite daffodil," Felix replied, wiping away a single tear.

"That's too perfect," Ralph said shaking his head. "So, the point of the embarrassing story is what exactly?"

"The point, my compadre, is that it hurts because Vanellope is one of the important people in your life and is not selfish that you miss her. I miss Tamora when she's off working or on night's like tonight when she's doing something, she loves but the love I have for her keep our hearts tied together Kinda like an anchor or really sturdy plumbing on a waterfront condo."

"Sturdy plumbing?" Ralph snickered.

"Look it's not the best metaphor but you get what I'm saying don't you?"

Ralph nodded. "I do."

"Ok good…and trust me on this one. When you finally get to see Vanellope again, it will be a magical moment when all this pain will be worth it. You can take all that love and pour it into the best hug you will probably ever give." Felix assured him.

Ralph nodded with a sigh, taking a long sip from his root beer.

"Feel any better partner?" Felix asked.

"A lot better actually." His friend replied with a smile as Felix got up to leave.

"Takin off already?"

"Unfortunately, yes, I've gotta get home and get started on dinner, although if you wanted to hang out a bit longer you could always-"

"No no that's alright buddy. Go home, get everything ready for your special night. I'll be alright." Ralph insisted.

"You sure?" Felix asked as his friend nodded.

"I'm sure, thanks again for coming to see me. It means a lot."

"Anytime brother, anytime." The handyman told him, tipping his hat before turning towards the exit, leaving Ralph alone at the bar sipping on his root beer. Today had significance for him and Vanellope, being the day the often referred to as their friendiversary. They usually went to do something special to celebrate today, but with Slaughter Race more popular than ever, it just wasn't possible this year.

As Ralph finished off what he decided would be his last root beer for the night, he felt a buzz in his pocket and quickly retrieved the little communication device Yesss had given to him during his brief stint as Buzztube star. When he saw Vanellope's face on the screen he flipped it open as quick as he could.

"Hey kiddo!" He beamed as the fuzzy hologram of his best friend waved excitedly to him. Her sweater was covered in scorch marks and spots of grease and her hair was disheveled, barely holding her signature ponytail together.

"Heya stinkbrain." She said with a grin before her eyes turned to the floor. Ralph noticed this right away and spoke with a tone of concern.

"Is everything alright?" He asked as her eyes rose up to meet his. Her form started to warp as she glitched, blue pixels rolling across her body like a wave as her voice came through as a distorted warble.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get the day off on our friendiversary. I know how important it is to you and I wish I was there to celebrate it with you." She began only for Ralph to silence her by raising his free hand.

"Hey hey its ok, we're both busy nowadays. Especially since you guys just got that new area unlocked. Sequoia Speedway right?"

Vanellope nodded enthusiastically, jumping up and down.

"It's so cool! It starts and ends with these big straightaways. They let muscle cars like Pyro's and Butcher Boy's pull ahead early, but the middle section is filled with a handful of hairpin turns that Tuner cars like mine can use to make up ground if we drift well enough." She explained. "Its full of these big trees that go up and up forever and ever. I bet even you couldn't knock them down."

Ralph scoffed. "Is that challenge?"

"You bet it is!" She replied. "That way you can wreck some stuff and then I'll get to see you." Ralph smiled at her comment as she sat down on a pile of tires.

"I miss you…a lot, especially today" She said quietly, shoving her hands into her sweater pockets, glitching again ever so slightly.

"I miss you a lot too." He replied, gently setting the communicator on the bar. "Stinks that we have to spend our friendiversary apart." Vanellope nodded in agreement but put on a brave smile.

"At least we have these communicators. We can kind of hang out." She offered.

"That's true, it's the next best thing!" Ralph declared.

"What have you been up to today?" Vanellope asked, idly swinging her legs.

"It's been business as usual for the most part. Once the arcade was closed for the day I came Tappers to hang out with Felix-"

"Felix?! I haven't talked to him in forever, can I say hi?" Vanellope exclaimed.

"He actually left just before you called. He's on his way home to celebrate his anniversary." Ralph told her.

"Shoot, just missed him." Vanellope muttered as her friend's face lit up.

"Speaking of Felix, wanna hear something hilarious?"

"Uh doy?" Vanellope replied leaning in closer.

"So one time, when our game was going, Felix mistook Gene for Tamora!"

"No way!"

"Way! He even called him his dynamite dandelion!"

Vanellope started cackling and Ralph's felt a warmth in the depths of his heart spread across his entire body. He loved that laugh since it always made his day. Once she had stopped goggling, Vanellope shook her head in disbelief.

"That's amazing…" She told her friend as the sound of a garage door shuttering could be heard in the background. Ralph knew what this meant.

"Closing up for the night?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm not on the night patrol so Felony, Pyro and I are getting ready to turn in for the night. We have to be up in a few hours for dawn patrol, so I have to get going, but I wish we could talk longer."

"Me too kid, but you need your rest. So, go get some shut eye, I bet you're exhausted." Ralph told her as she stretched her arms and yawned.

"We're still on for Christmas yeah?" She asked.

"Of course! I'm counting the days."

"Me too…ok, I'll let you go Ralph. Happy friendiversary stinkbrain."

"Happy friendiversary to you too baroness boogerface."

Ralph started to close the communicator only for Vanellope to blurt out

"Love you!"

Ralph smiled warmly and waved goodbye to her.

"Love you too."

The hologram dissipated with a flicker, leaving Ralph alone yet again but feeling much better than he did earlier in the evening. Being apart from his best friend was hard, and there were days where it was definitely harder than normal, but it was all part of being best friends forever. No matter where she was, or what adventure she was on, Ralph would always love Vanellope, forever and forever was a long time coming.


	2. New Look

A New Look

 _After visiting the arcade, Vanellope is left looking to change up her appearance to better suit her new game. So, she and Shank head out into the wastes during a server outage to hunt for the perfect racing attire._

Vanellope could not have been more excited to be back in the arcade after being gone for months. Ralph had insisted that he be the one to visit her on the internet since Surge Protector was still on the lookout for her, telling the arcade it was his duty to make an example out of the 'next Turbo'. Ralph hadn't taken kindly to this and, according to Felix and Tamora, Surge had called Ralph out for defending a 'selfish little brat who abandoned him' and as a result Ralph nearly put him through a wall.

Ever since Ralph had to sneak around Surge's back to ensure he could make his trips to the Internet and their relationship was on shaky ground, to say the least, but judging by their last video call, Sonic had managed to smooth things over between the two and Surge was willing to hear her out on why she left the arcade. With the way home clear of any hazards, she used her next set of days off to make her glorious return to Litwak's.

She landed on the receiving pad of the Wi-Fi Station with a small thud, having exited her data pod at speed. She looked around excitedly, expecting a welcoming committee, but she found herself alone, with only the gentle hum of the Wi-Fi station greeting her, green light pulsing up and down the machine's circuits.

Vanellope's first guess was that the Arcade was still open and that her friends were still working. In her time at Slaughter Race, time had become a tricky thing to keep track of. Sure, the game had its own day and night cycle, but it rarely matched up with the outside world's. Following her memories, Vanellope descended the staircase that led into Game Central Station, her eyes scanning the familiar space for Surge, but even he was absent from the station. What she did spot was a cluster of tire tracks, not defined by mud or dust, but crumbled sprinkles and flakes of dried chocolate.

She smiled and glitched over to the tracks, immediately recognizing the treads of candy karts. Specifically, Tafftya's peculiar choice of Twizzlers based tires. Sure, they were great for show, but they were terribly inefficient when it came to traction. Tafftya was a lot of things, but she was never one to put something on her kart just for the sake of looks. Unless…

Vanellope eyes traced the path of the tracks, which led from Sugar Rush and straight into Fix It Felix Jr. She grinned and glitched across the width of the station.

Unless Tafftya wanted her to notice all this.

…

She walked off the tram and into the perpetual twilight that was the world of Fix It Felix Jr, taken aback by the brisk evening breeze that she had once been accustomed to in her years hanging out with Ralph. Vanellope noticed all the karts parked out front of the Nicelander's building and ran forward, her heart swelling with happiness.

She had been deprived of Ralph's hugs for far too long, and she was intent on making up for lost time by giving him the biggest hug she could muster. She jumped over Rancis' cart and glitched forward, phasing through the building's glass doors and into the darkened lobby, throwing her arms outward as she landed in the center of the room.

"Look who's back!" She exclaimed, expecting for the lights to come on and all her friends to jump out and greet her, but instead she was met with the darkness of a deserted apartment building lobby.

"Guys?" Vanellope asked, putting her arms down and shoving her hands into sweater pocket. "You can come out now."

A door to her left flung open, revealing her best friend emerging from the basement of the building. She couldn't see his expression, but she instinctively turned and ran to him, tears in her eyes as the lights flickered on, illuminating Ralph's features. There were tears in his eyes as he put his arms out.

"Kid…"

"Ralph, I missed you so much!" She exclaimed as she jumped up to hug him only for him to fall over onto his stomach, strings of red code emanating from his back. The room was warping around her, lines of code replacing features of the building.

"Ralph?" She asked as she landed next to him, putting her hand on his face as something pulled her up by the hood of her sweater.

"Heyya Princess." A familiar voice sneered.

Vanellope turned to see a tall man in a white racing suit and helmet looming over her, his yellow eyes burning with hatred and making her stomach turn in on itself.

"Turbo?! You…how…you're supposed to be-"

"Dead? Afraid it didn't take." He told her matter of factly.

"What do you want?" She barked, struggling to free herself from his grasp.

"A new game to start. At first, I thought about but going back to ruling Sugar Rush since you were gone, but I decided I wanted a change of scenery. Funny thing about these old games though, its really hard to change their code. Well, at least its hard to change without breaking something." Turbo sneered, setting her down gently.

"You should check on your friend."

Vanellope glitched over to Ralph's side, tugging on his arm.

"Ralph please get up, we have to get out of here. Where's Felix?"

"Felix?" Ralph asked, getting up onto his hands and knees.

"Yeah Felix, we have to find him so we can get out of this game." She explained, turning her gaze towards to Turbo, who was watching them intently from across the lobby.

Ralph stood up, cocking his head at an angle as he looked at Vanellope.

"Felix?" He asked in confusion before furrowing his brow.

"Oh no-" Vanellope muttered as Turbo started chuckling.

"Felix!" Ralph snarled, throwing a punch the Vanellope dodged by glitching out of the way.

"Ralph please, it's me its Vanellope don't you remember?" She pleaded as Turbo started laughing uncontrollably Ralph threw another punch that Vanellope ducked under, watching in horror as the wall behind her was obliterated.

"I'm gonna wreck it!" He bellowed as he tried to crush her with both of her fists but missing her by a hair as she rolled out of the way.

"Ralph!" She sobbed as he attacked her again and again, forcing her to run out of the lobby as Turbo taunted her.

"Run little glitch, run!"

Vanellope jumped into the first kart she could reach and peeled out, leaving Ralph in the dust as she made a beeline for the tram back to Game Central Station. All the while, the game world around her disintegrated into lines of code that flew into the growing void above her like embers.

"Selfish brat! You brought this on yourself! You left your game without its hero, and what's a hero without a villain? I can tell you because deep down you already know! You've always known! You're nothing! That's why you left, isn't it? To become something you are not? Newsflash _Princess_ , no matter where you go, no matter how far you go, you'll never escape that fact!"

"Leave me alone!" Vanellope screamed as Ralph landed in front of her and threw a punch at the cart, which broke into a thousand pieces as it made contact with his fist. Vanellope was thrown from her seat and into the air, striking the ground and bouncing twice before rolling to a stop. Her form glitched in and out of existence as Ralph approached with a terrifying look in his eyes. Vanellope tried to get up, but she couldn't summon the strength to move.

"Ralph, please…this isn't you-"

Ralph cocked his arm back to throw a punch.

"Goodbye Vanellope." Turbo sneered.

"Ralph NO!" She screamed as her friend attacked her with a joyful Turbo looking on.

…

Vanellope bolted upright in her bed, tears flowing from her eyes as she flopped back onto her bed face down, trying to suppress her crying so she wouldn't wake her friends, who were sleeping next to, over and under her. She sat up again and scooched towards the foot of her bed, where a dusty old duffel bag contained her few possessions, fumbling around inside the bag she grabbed what she was looking for and pulled the two items out and set them on her bed. She gazed at her half of Ralph's hero medal, running her fingers over the hardened frosting, which still held it's signature lumpiness from uneven distribution. She smiled ever so slightly at her handiwork, remembering the hoops she had jump through to scrounge up the materials required to even make the thing in the first place.

It had been a real pain to get the sugar cookie into its signature heart shape, especially without a cookie cutter but she had managed to pull it off by forcing the cookie to glitch out so it would keep its shape instead of falling apart. The practice she got doing that helped her a lot when it came time to race for her place in Sugar Rush.

She quickly put the medal around her neck and pulled her legs up to her chest, staring at the other item she had pulled out of her bag: Her Buzztube communicator. She wanted to call Ralph, he always helped her calm down after her nightmares, which had been common in the weeks and even months after Turbo's defeat. During the time she would go wake Ralph up, often in the middle of the night, seeking a friend. In that time Ralph had gone from a friend to her best friend. The first and only one she could ever remember having. Even before Turbo messed with her game's code, it had been lonely at the top of the kingdom. She had never gotten along with her fellow racers, who called her glitch a bug that lazy developers turned into a feature.

It always came back to her glitch with them.

That's why it was so easy to leave, to pack up and leave Sugar Rush for Slaughter Race. It turned out that her fellow racers always kinda of hated her. With Turbo in charge they could be more obvious about it, but with Ralph, Felix and Tamora around, it was back to snide remarks and excluding her from everything they did. Forgetting to invite her or going out when she was busy trying to put their game back together. The last time she spoke to Felix and Tamora, they said the tracers were a lot nicer now, thanks to their parenting, but for Vanellope the scars left behind would never really fade. Deep down, she hoped it was true and that they really were sorry and that they had changed for the better, but she was done giving them second chances.

Sugar Rush could never feel like home, not really.

Vanellope leaned over to look down on Butcher Boy, who was in the bunk below her and whose snoring sounded like a Hemi engine and chuckled softly. To others, it might have been impossible to sleep with him snoring like that but to her, it represented security. She was home, amongst her crew, her fellow weirdos, and she loved them like they were family, and they loved her right back. More than the racers at Sugar Rush ever did.

A shiver ran up her spine as the intrusive thought of Turbo returning from the dead to wreak havoc on Slaughter Race crawled into her code, but she shook her head and chased the thought away. Turbo was nothing but scattered ones and zeros now, and nothing was going to bring him back. She knew that she always told herself that, but even now after such a vivid dream, she struggled to believe it. She huffed and pulled her hoodie over her head and reached out to grab her communicator, flipping it open and staring at the holographic projections that represented her contact list.

She had Surge in there, for the day when she had the guts to call and explain herself and hopefully he would forgive her for abandoning her game and let her visit the arcade. The only good part of that nightmare was her mind tricking her into thinking that was all water under the bridge, but she knew the truth. After Surge called out Ralph for defending her, the two hadn't spoken since, despite Sonic's best efforts. She knew tonight wasn't the night to make that call.

Sonic was on her contact list as well but they were acquaintances at best. Sonic would more than likely wake up Ralph or Felix and Tamora and let them know something was going on before going back to whatever he was doing before she called.

Felix and Tamora would be helpful, Tamora would likely ask if she needed to come visit while Felix would get her to vent before asking if she had talked to Ralph about it yet. If Shank and Ralph were her older siblings than Felix and Tamora were the closest thing she had to parents.

That left Ralph, who she knew had a very loud very obnoxious ringtone on his communicator for her just for this exact scenario. He would be up by the end of the first ring and out the door within minutes. It wouldn't have been the first time, but she didn't want to make him hike all the way out here just for her. That wouldn't have been fair to him.

She would have to deal with this on your own.

A faint buzzing rattled the bunk above her as she heard some groan and switch off the alarm before sitting up in bed and yawing before carefully making their way down the ladder that connected to all their beds. As Shank passed Vanellope, she did a sleepy double take.

"Heya V, what are you doing up so early?"

"Eh, just couldn't sleep." She replied, taking her hood off and extending her legs as Shank gave her a questioning glance before noticing her communicator lying on open on the bed.

"Everything alright at Litwaks?"

Vanellope nodded quickly.

"Yeah yeah, everything is ok, I'm just…I'm missing Ralph a little extra today."

Shank frowned and gave a nod of understanding.

"Those days aren't fun."

"No, no they're not," Vanellope affirmed.

"Have you called him?"

"No, I don't want to bug him. He'll be getting up soon for work anyways. If I call him now he'll be distracted all day."

"He's your best friend V, he won't mind." Shank insisted but the unsure look on her friends face made her relent."

"Well you don't have to call him, but we need to get your mind off this, you wanna help me make breakfast?"

"Sure," Vanellope replied, getting up and following Shank down the ladder to the warehouse floor. The Abandoned Buy and Large Super Store was a great hideout, the massive shelving units gave them plenty of space to store their loot and weaponry from raids, while the cleared-out floor of the warehouse and its old maintenance bays for cars made excellent garages. Secure and separate from the rest of the store. If any punk wanted to get to their cars, they'd have to go through them, and the mutant roaches that were still holed up in the snack bar.

Their kitchen was set up in the outdoors section, amongst half assembled patio sets and children's jungle gyms. Tucked in a secluded corner was a large grill, a pair of fridges and a small cluster of luxury lawn chairs, Vanellope resigned herself to fetching ingredients for Shank, grabbing half of them from memory. As the grill came to life, Shank rolled up her sleeves and got cooking. As seasoned moose bacon sizzled, she regarded the younger racer with concern yet again.

"Are you sure your alright V? Usually, you're bombarding me with questions about how to drive by now?" Shank teased, prompting Vanellope to laugh softly and rub her arm self-consciously.

"I just had a really bad dream is all." She began, placing an unsure hand on her hood like she was debating whether or not to put it on in shame.

"Do you need to talk about it?" Shank asked, cracking open a Super Pigeon egg without batting an eye.

"Not sure what there is to talk about, I already told you guys about Turbo," Vanellope muttered.

"He's the guy who altered your game's code and tried to ruin your life right?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Sounds like a nasty piece of work. It's a good thing Ralph took care of him."

Vanellope smiled at the thought of her best friend going into battle for her, it would be the first instance of this, and it had been far from the last. Even Shank and the others had gone to bat for her early on in Slaughter Race when some of the player base didn't take kindly to her sudden addition to the game. Despite the pushback, things had calmed down and Vanellope had gained a small following amongst the game's community.

"Have you had nightmares about him before?" Shank continued, motioning for Vanellope to grab plates so she could start serving the crew, whom could be heard shifting around on the storage racks high above them.

"Yeah, right after we got my game fixed. It was so bad the Nicelanders in Fix it Felix Jr gave me a place to stay with the game-less characters behind the apartment building, but after a while I was able to go home and start living a normal life again. A few years ago, it stopped, until today…" Her friend explained.

"This one was different though, in the past, he always was after just me. Wanting to get rid of me so he could go back to being King Candy but now, he went after Fix it Felix Jr, he went after Ralph. That scared me more than anything else he's done in all my other nightmares." Vanellope shook her head and stomped her foot in frustration.

"I don't know why I'm still scared of that old hack. He's been dead for six years, but just the thought of him makes my whole-body tense up like I'm about to be force fed black licorice." She sighed. "I'm sorry Shank, I didn't want to dump this all on you, I gotta get over this."

Shank's gaze transformed into one of concern and she stopped cooking.

"Vanellope, look at me." She said sternly, dropping to one knee.

"What Turbo did to you was horrible, and what he did to the other games of your arcade was unforgivable. It doesn't surprise me that you're still scared of him but don't ever feel like you have to hide your feelings because it's been a long time since all this happened. You are allowed to say that you're still scared of Turbo, or that you miss Ralph more than usual. You're allowed to feel whatever it is you're feeling. Never be ashamed of that fact."

The little girl nodded.

"You think these nightmares will go away for good someday?"

Shank sighed, brushing a stray strand of hair out of her face.

"To be honest V, this Turbo thing is going to stick with you, maybe even forever."

Vanellope frowned as she considered the possibility.

"You think so?"

Shank nodded, "That's trauma for you kid. It hurts less some days, but its always there. I wish it wasn't true, and I wish you never had to learn that, but here we are." She began before putting a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"The important thing is this, he can't hurt you anymore, and each day you spend living your life is proof of that. You have me, the crew, Ralph and your other friends who want you to happy, safe and loved. If your nightmares are coming back, then it might be time to remind yourself of that, because we aren't going anywhere anytime soon."

Vanellope threw her arms around her friend and hugged her tightly.

"Thank you, Shank."

"Anytime V." She replied.

"Morning you two! Hey, can I get in on this?" Came the voice of Butcher Boy, who had just descended from his bunk.

"The more the merrier," Vanellope told him, gesturing for him to join the hug with one arm. Butcher Boy smiled and wrapped his burly arms around his friends.

"Hey, guys?" Vanellope asked.

"Hm?" Her friends replied in unison.

"I've been thinking, I wanna look more like you guys. Do we have anything around here that I could use?"

Butcher Boy broke from the hug and pointed to a distant corner of the Buy and Large.

"We keep costumes for holiday events over there, as well as loot that players drop when they find better stuff in the game world. Might be hard to find something that's your size but its worth a look."

"You go ahead and take a peak V, I've got breakfast under control. I'll send someone to grab you when everything is ready." Shank told her.

Vanellope nodded and expressed her gratitude before bounding off across the store, glitching over and through overturned shopping carts, cleaning robots and six-legged possums the whole way.

…

Half an hour later, the crew was up and about, sitting in a circle in their lawn chairs and devouring their breakfast when Pyro returned from across the store, holding up a small ragged beach towel to conceal his friend who was following close behind.

"Ladies and gents, are you ready to see the new and improved Vanellope Von Schweetz?" He announced.

"Let's see her!" Felony exclaimed, jumping to her feet.

"Butcher Boy! Drum roll if you please!" Shank instructed.

He gave her a quick nod and slammed the lid of the grill shut before rhythmically tapping on it with his fingers.

Pyro dropped the towel curtain he had put up, removing his flamethrowers from their holsters as he did so and shot two towering columns of fire into the air and he stepped behind Vanellope.

She was sporting hot pink racing goggles that she spray painted herself, a white cloak riddled with bullet holes, scorch marks, and grease stains. There was a rectangular bandage on her cheek, held in place by a bit of gauze, adding to her post-apocalyptic raider look. All this was paired with a mint green leather jacket with white racing stripes running up the sleeves and souvenir patches showing the tracks she held the fastest lap times on. She now wore a lighter brown skirt with pink and yellow trim. Her tights were the same as they always had been, but they were now paired with black combat boots. To top it all off, she had a white racing glove on her left hand, and right arm tied up in gauze that went up to her elbow.

The crew cheered in approval as Vanellope took her place amongst them, with everyone complimenting her on the time and effort she had put into her new gear.

"I'm digging the goggles V." Little Debbie said as she sat down.

"My favorite part is the cloak, it adds some mystique to her, being our newest member and all," Pyro told her.

"I think those track patches are cute, she might have to take some of them off in a week though. Those fastest lap times won't be hers for long." Shank teased, giving her friend a wink.

"A week huh? That's a little slow for you Shank." Vanellope replied quickly before taking a bite out of her burrito. Pyro's eyebrows shot up in surprises at the retort while Felony and Vanellope exchanged a fist bump. Shank was shocked by the comeback as well, but her expression shifted to one of pride.

"Our little Baroness has got quite a bit of sass today!" Pyro said with a chuckle.

Everyone looked at him in awe.

"Baroness! That's brilliant!" Felony exclaimed.

"Is that gonna be my crew name?" Vanellope asked.

"I think so unless anyone else has any better ideas?" Shank purposed.

No one objected and Shank smiled at her friend.

"Baroness Von Schweetz it is."

"Yahoo!" Vanellope shouted jumping for joy before getting back to eating her breakfast burrito.

The crew ate in silence for the remainder of the morning, taking their time since the server would be down for another few hours for the installation of the weekly patch. After finishing their breakfast, they continued enjoying each other's company as they set about their daily routines, killing time as they waited for players to trickle into the warehouse for the daily raid.

Pyro was cleaning the nozzles on his flamethrowers, Felony doodled away on her sketchpad as she tried to decide on what her next tattoo was going to be. Butcher Boy had his computer in his lap, enjoying a lengthy TED talk on technology and its unintended effects on the human condition, Little Debbie was filming her vlogs for the players which serve to inform them of upcoming events in the game world and doubled as viral marketing for the game studio. Shank was working as well, going through a list of new car upgrades that we're going to be added in the next big update and trying to decide what she would need to acquire to stay competitive with the player base.

Vanellope in the meantime was fumbling with her communicator, flipping it open and closed as she mentally wrestled with the thought of calling her friend. Directly across from her, Shank watched her with curiosity as she idly kicked her legs.

"Is V ok?" Felony muttered, hardly looking up from her sketchpad.

"She was tossing and turning a lot this morning, muttering a bunch too. I was worried." Butcher Boy added.

"She had a really bad nightmare about Turbo," Shank explained.

"She once told me how Ralph used to help her out after she had bad dreams like that." Little Debbie added.

"Has she talked to him about?" Pyro asked.

Shank shook her head and leaned up against nearby warehouse crate.

"She said she didn't want to bug him, I think it bothers her that something that happened six years ago still has a hold on her."

"It must make her feel helpless after having gone so long without thinking about him and then one night it's like its happening all over again." Felony offered, setting her pencil down and flexing her hand.

"I know I would have trouble sleeping after going through something like that. Having your code altered…" Butcher Boy began before shuttering. "That's just wrong."

"Especially when it involves a little kid. It's not just wrong. It's evil." Pyro muttered.

"A poisoned mind will do heinous things. Turbo was no exception. Although I'll never understand how or why Turbo did what did, I have no desire to." Butcher Boy told his friends, who nodded in agreement.

"Hey, guys," Vanellope announced walking over to them. "I'm gonna go talk to Ralph for a bit, let me know when we have some players coming our way."

"You got it V," Shank replied with a smile before Vanellope set off for a more secluded area so as not to bother everyone with her conversation.

…

When the pixelated blue image of Ralph appeared in front of her, Vanellope was finally able to relax. Just seeing her friend's goofy smile and hearing his voice was enough to calm her down in almost any situation.

"Hey, little sister!" He exclaimed before pointing to the bandage on her cheek.

"Hey you alright, is that one clan griefing you again?"

"No no, it's just part of my new costume. Figured I needed some new clothes to go with my new name. You must now refer to me as Baroness Von Schweetz." She ordered as she set the communicator down on a nearby cargo crate and backed up so that Ralph could see her entire body.

"Whoa-ho-ho! You look awesome kid!"

"Thank you!" She replied with a smile.

"It seems like your having a good day." Ralph leaning up against the brick wall that was behind him.

"It's been getting better yeah." She replied, picking up her communicator and sitting crossed legged on the cold linoleum floor.

"Better? Has it not been a good day?"

"It-it's been rough." She began, glitching ever so slightly.

"Do you need to talk about it?" Ralph asked.

"I can talk if you have time-" Vanellope began

"Well its been slow today so-"

"I just don't wanna bug you when you're working-"

"You're not bugging me."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive." He assured her.

Vanellope took a breath and put her communicator on the floor, pulled her legs up against her chest and rested her chin on her knees.

"But we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. You can always talk to Shank if you think it'll be easier to talk to her."

"No no I wanna talk to you, it's just-" Vanellope huffed in frustration and glitched out more intensely this time.

"I had a nightmare, a really bad nightmare where Turbo came back and he got to your game. He altered your code so you didn't recognize me, you looked at me…" Vanellope shut her eyes, trying to hold back her tears. "You looked at me like you hated me, like everyone else in my life did when Turbo was King Candy and I guess afterward too, everyone was just a little better at hiding it."

"Vanellope-" Ralph murmured, clearly at a loss for words.

"I woke up and I felt sick to my stomach because that's what really scares me about Turbo still. I know he's gone, and I know there's no way he can come back but when I was racing to save you when you were about to fall into the Diet Cola Mountain, what scared me wasn't that Turbo wanted to kill me, or that he ruined my life, but it was the fact that he came after y-you. The fact that even after everything he had taken away from me, my kart, my house, even my ability to race, the thing I l-love more than anything else in the entire world. The fact that I thought he had taken everything away and there was still something else, another way he was trying to hurt me. He's still hurting me R-ralph and I-I don't know what to do…I feel like I'm not even safe in my s-sleep." She explained, wiping her tears away when she was finished.

"I don't want this to be my life…looking over my shoulder looking for a ghost."

The pair sat in silence for few minutes as Ralph tried to think of what he could say to his distraught friend. After what seemed like an eternity, he spoke up.

"Do you remember, right after we fixed your game, how bad your nightmares were?"

"How could I ever forget?" She scoffed. "You'd have to take me to Tappers or Burger Time just to calm me down."

"Well if you didn't forget then you should remember that only lasted for like a month." Ralph continued.

"A month is a long time-"

"I know I know, but after that month, it was once or twice a week. Then you stopped waking me up in the middle of the night and we'd talk about it in the morning or the next time we hung out. Then it happened maybe once a month, and they happened less and less from there. You've been getting stronger everyday kid, after what you've been through, that's nothing to scoff at. You have no idea how proud I am to call you my friend."

Vanellope was starting to smile again.

"Today might have been hard, but you're in a better place than you were in six years ago and things are only going to get better because you're still healing. I'll always be there for you, no matter what. No crusty old fart of a character isn't ever going to convince me that you aren't the greatest thing that's happened to this arcade since Burger Time got plugged in. Even if he were to dig around in my code. That's how special you are kid, don't ever forget that. Ok?"

Vanellope sniffled and her glitching stabilized before stopping altogether,

"Aw shucks, thanks chumbo."

"Feel any better?" Ralph asked.

"Yeah, a lot better." She replied.

"Good, sounds like I did my job," Ralph said proudly.

"You excited for this weekend?"

"Well duh, do you know how long it's been since I got a genuine Ralph hug?"

"Too long?"

"Way too long," Vanellope answered with a nod.

"Hey V, we've got players incoming!" Felony shouted.

"Whelp, duty calls." The little girl said with a sigh, scooping up her communicator as she stood up.

"Knock em dead Baroness Von Schweetz," Ralph told her.

"You got it. Love you! See you soon!"

"Love ya kid, bye!" Her friend told her as she snapped her communicator shut and ran for her car, her fears replaced with the hope that came with a new day. Her surrogate siblings were right, she was still healing, and she was allowed to hurt every now and again but Turbo was where he belonged and where he should have stayed: The past. The future was filled with many things, a long-awaited reunion being one of them. The thought of this carried Vanellope out of the garage and down the highway towards her next adventure.

…

A.N- Hope everyone enjoyed this newest chapter. Right now, I've got thirty-six chapters planned for this story. Every 12 chapters will be considered a season and each season will deal will have its own mini story that everything revolves around. For the first season, I'll be laying the ground work for the other two seasons so it's the most unfocused of the three but I'm excited to really get everything going. I hope to see you there! Thanks for reading and until next time,

Wolf out!


	3. Christmas at the House of Mouse

Christmas at the House of Mouse

Today was the big today. The day Ralph had been waiting on for the past two months. All he had to do was get through four more quarters. Two more players and he was free. Free to spend his time doing whatever he wanted.

There was only one thing he wanted to do with that free time; visit his best friend in the whole world. She had invited him to meet her at Oh My Disney for their annual Christmas party, which was being held a retro venue this year.

Lucky for them Ralph's middle name was retro, so he knew he'd fit right in. All he had to do was get through this shift.

The first player would be no problem. It was just another one of the arcade's regulars. A little kid round Vanellope's age that played Fix it Felix Jr during his rounds on Friday Afternoon and Saturday Night, telling his friends about how Felix and Ralph were his dad's favorite video game characters growing up.

For that reason alone, Ralph went a little easier on him, a practice that most of his retro colleagues weren't exactly fond of but Ralph couldn't help it. He had a soft spot for the little guy. Seeing him flipped the big brother switch in his head, just like what happened when he saw Vanellope.

Today was different than normal though. The little kid looked tired, his brown eyes were dull and his pace through the level was agonizingly slow. He kept missing jumps and falling to lower levels but hardly showed any frustration at his less than stellar performance.

Ralph did his best to get him moving at something that resembled a normal pace, breaking windows and chucking debris in certain patterns to flush the little guy out of the lower levels of the building but if he tried any harder he'd have to let him win. Which would definitely catch him some flak at Tappers.

"Come on kid, move," Ralph muttered, jumping up and pulverizing the roof with both fists to create debris shower. An attack he had refused to use until now. If this didn't get him moving, nothing would.

Much to his surprise, the little kid couldn't get Felix out of the way in time and the debris shower killed his coworker and took away his last life. Ralph assumed his standard victory stance as the continue counter ticked down from thirty.

The little kid eyed his quarters as Mr. Litwak passed by, stopping to take note of the situation.

"Ah Lucas, did Ralph's super attack get you again?"

Lucas nodded and scooped up his quarters from their resting place against the screen.

"I can never get past that attack, no matter what I do…I think I'm gonna call it a day." He told him, shoving his hands in his sweater pocket. Just like Vanellope did when she got frustrated or annoyed.

Litwak wasn't letting him off that easy though, getting down on one knee and looking at Lucas with concern, angling his gaze like he was trying to see something hidden below the surface of a pond.

"Everything ok bud?"

Lucas frowned and started to speak but then shut his eyes tightly and turned away from Litwak like the old man was about to give him a flu shot.

"Yeah, everything's fine."

Litwak pursed his lips like he was unsure if he should speak but then smiled warmly at the little kid.

"Fix it Felix Jr is one of the hardest games in here. That's why people love it, and we've all had days where Ralph wouldn't let us anywhere near the top. You'll get there one day though."

A small smile appeared on the little boy's face, he looked about 10 years younger.

"Thanks, Mr. Litwak."

"Anytime kiddo...You look hungry. Want something from the snack bar? It's on the house."

Lucas furrowed his brow like he was considering it but then pulled out his phone and sighed.

"Thank you, really but, it's almost five. I gotta go find mom. Maybe next time."

"Next time it is then," Litwak said with a nod as the little kid set out for the door.

"Night Mr. Litwak."

"Night Lucas!" He replied weakly, and as he disappeared out of sight, Litwak pinched the bridge of his nose and cast his gaze downwards before another little kid came looking for his help.

"Looks like it's my turn!" A new voice declared, putting his quarters into the machine and starting a new game.

Compared to Lucas, Jeremey was a whole other being. Jeremey was the kind of kid who played Battle Toads while eating cocoa puffs to start his day and things only got crazier from there.

He had menaced, albeit unintentionally, every character in Litwak's for a little over a decade. Sometimes spending an entire day at one cabinet so that he could get his name at the top of the high score list for every cabinet.

Today he had been roaming around the arcade, trying to improve his high score on some of his favorite games or reclaim his throne on the cabinets where he had been knocked down from the top spot. Now he had returned to the game where he had gotten his first high score. Where it all began for him.

Ralph knew he didn't need to hold back with Jeremy. Whatever he dished out Jeremy could take, and even throw right back at him. Jeremy was the only thing standing between him and Vanellope now.

"Shall we old friend?" Jeremy asked him, of course already knowing what Ralph's response would be.

"I'm gonna wreck it!"

...

Weeks ago, Vanellope was told she was going to be a guest of honor at the big Christmas party that was being held at The House of Mouse on the Oh My Disney site. She wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but she had been told to bring her ball gown (yuck!) and some nice regular clothes, presumably for lounging around before it was time for the party to start.

The House of Mouse had shut down for years to undergo a major refit and tonight would be its big reopening. Vanellope's friends at OMD had been talking about it for months, and finally convinced her to invite some of her own friends to join them for the holiday festivities this year.

The perpetual night of Downtown Disney had made it difficult to navigate but as Vanellope approached the building, she was taken aback. The silver metal with red detailing that made up the front of the building reminded her of an old hot rod. Above the doors was a large neon red sign shaped like the head of a mouse. A red carpet that started at the curbside of Main Street led her into the building that was already bustling with activity.

As Vanellope cautiously advanced down the red carpet, someone tapped her on the shoulder, almost making her jump.

"Heya little girl, we aren't open yet." Said the Toon that was standing before her, almost equal in height. He was dressed in a burgundy chauffer outfit, which was adorned with brass buttons and gold trimming. His long ears sticking out from his little hat, which had a little mouse ears symbol on its front.

"Oh uh sorry, I was told that I was supposed to get here early. You see I was invited-"

"Hey, Oswald! Who's that?" A new voice asked.

"Not sure Max, never seen her before. She said that she was told she was supposed to get here early?" Oswald replied,

Max was also a chauffeur except his uniform had a few more bells and whistles, namely the gold mouse ears on either shoulder. He had long ears as well but nowhere nears as long as Oswald's and two front teeth that peeked out from his lips. Despite his odd appearance, he wore a warm smile as he pulled out an electronic tablet and scrolled through it.

"The only people who are supposed to show up early are the princesses and their guest of oh-oh here we go! The guest of honor! Vanellope Von Schweetz!" Max exclaimed.

Oswald turned back towards her.

"I am so sorry, I didn't know-"

Vanellope raised a hand and shook her head.

"It's ok Oswald, I know I don't look anything like who you're used to letting into this place." She assured him.

"I'll take her inside Oz, I'll have someone bring your tablet. We've got a few more people we're expecting that you won't recognize." Max told his colleague.

"Thanks, Max!" He replied as Max gestured for Vanellope to follow.

"So you know the Princesses huh? How'd you pull that off?" Max asked.

"It was chance meeting really, I was out working, and one thing led to another when I came here. After that, we became fast friends. Probably because I'm a princess too."

"Oh yeah? Where you from?"

"A game called Sugar Rush, that's where I spent most of life but I've moved onto greener pastures. That place was never really for me…" Vanellope said, a hint of sadness in her voice.

Max examined her with concern but elected not to press the issue and opened the door for his guest.

"Well trust me, there's no other place like this on the web. We'll make sure you have a great time tonight. It'll be the best Christmas party you've ever been to." He assured her as she stepped inside.

The lobby was just as extravagant as the exterior. Red carpet with gold swirls paired with the chandelier that dangling above the image of another set of mouse ears. The walls were plain white but were adorned with the simple line art of a variety of toons. Vanellope even recognized a few of her friends. Ariel singing on top of a rock as a wave crashed behind her, Snow White singing to her animal friends, Belle in her library searching for another book to read.

Suddenly all of the images faded away and were replaced by Cinderella running down the steps of a castle, leaving her signature glass slipper behind but then the image slowly started to move as color filled the image turning it into a moving work of art like a memory playing out in real time. The scene carried on for a few seconds before fading and being replaced with another mass collection of line art although this time, Vanellope didn't recognize anyone.

As she and Max walked towards the front desk, they passed a boy with black messy hair in a blue sweater that read San Fransokyo on the front and dark jeans who was talking to a small rusted robot who was watching him with two large optical sensors that looked like binoculars.

"Could you go find R2 and tell him that the spotlights on the east side are acting up again. I know he just took em apart, but Horace says they're still flickering every few minutes."

The tiny robot made a noise that's Vanellope could only guess was an affirmation before driving off as instructed.

"Thanks, WALL-E!" He shouted before looking up to see Max and Vanellope approaching.

"Hey, Max!"

"Hey, buddy! How's it hanging?"

"Ugh, it's alright. Just trying to get the kinks ironed out before showtime. You know how it is. Two weeks of dress rehearsals and I still don't know if we're ready." The young boy huffed. "Who's that you got with you? I don't recognize her."

"Oh, Vanellope Von Schweetz, this is Hiro Hamada. He's one of the guys that keeps the show running in tip-top shape." Max announced.

"Oh! She's the guest of honor, right?" Hiro guessed.

"You got it," Max replied.

"Nice to meet you Vanellope," Hiro said, extending his hand which Vanellope shyly shook.

"Nice to meet you too."

"Hey Hiro, is your team running security tonight?" Max asked.

"Nope, the Parrs are helping tonight. I'll be working for a few hours but then R2 is going to cover my shift for the rest of the night." Hiro replied before frowning at his tablet.

"Aw jeez, well Max I'd love to stay and chat but I've got a show to prep. See you around."

"See yah Hiro," Max said, waving goodbye to his friend as he walked off before walking Vanellope over to the front desk.

"Hey, handsome!" The redheaded toon at the desk said with a smile as Max approached.

"Hey you, c'mere!" Max said pulling her into a hug and planting a kiss on the top of her head, much to Vanellope's disgust.

"Max, Max, introduce me to your new friend." The Toon said with a giggle.

"Oh right! Roxanne this is our guest of honor-"

"Oh, Vanellope! Ariel was telling me about you a few hours ago. I need to get you backstage. Guests are going to be showing up soon, so we've got to get you ready for the Royal Procession. Um…Where are your friends? Ariel was telling me you'd be bringing three more people." She asked.

"They're still at work but they'll be here later."

"Oh, that's right, the arcade. Can't exactly ask to leave early huh?" Roxanne muttered as Max released her. "Whelp no problem, I'll have Max bring em straight to your table once they arrive. For now, though, you need to head backstage." Roxanne picked up the phone at her desk and punched in a number, while the phone rang Max tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, I gotta get the valet staff ready for opening, but I will come see you during my break."

"Ok, sounds good," Roxane said with a nod as Max gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Love you!"

"Love you too! Have a good night Vanellope!"

"Thanks, Max!" She said, waving to her friend as he walked back towards the entrance as someone answered Roxanne's call.

"Oh, hey Auto, can you send Officer Hopps over? We need to get Ms. Von Schweetz backstage…perfect thanks!" She asked before she hung up and looked to Vanellope.

"You can wait here with me, Officer Hopps is going to escort you backstage."

Vanellope furrowed her brow.

"You could always just tell me where to go." She offered.

"Well whenever the princesses, or their guests, are in the House of Mouse, they have to have an escort from the security office. You know in case the villains try to hatch some crazy scheme or the building starts spontaneously growing again."

Vanellope's eyes were wide with alarm.

"Uhhh…"

"You must be Vanellope!"

The little girl jumped, glitching out before turning to look at the rabbit in the police uniform that was standing next to her.

"Sorry! Didn't mean to startle you. You're probably not used to rabbits that look like me huh?"

Vanellope shook her head as the rabbit chuckled and offered her paw.

"Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD. I'll be looking after you tonight."

"Nice to meet you Officer," Vanellope said before Judy turned to Roxanne.

"Where is everyone else I thought-"

"They'll be here later, but hey before I forget how did that thing go last night, you know…the date?"

"It was amazing, we went out to our favorite place and had a really nice dinner."

"That's really good!"

-But then it got kinda weird towards the end. I felt like I was getting some mixed signals." Judy continued.

Roxanne plucked the pen from behind her ear and started jotting notes down.

"Ok, we're going to put a pin in this. You take Vanellope backstage and we're gonna talk about this later."

"Thank you so much, Roxy, you're a lifesaver!"

"Anything for you Jude, I'll talk to you later!"

"Later!" Judy replied as she motioned for Vanellope to follow, leading her past a darkened stairway marked with a sign that read Villains Lounge that was being guarded by two men in white body armor. Opposite of them was a freakishly large and very creepy mirror. She remembered Ralph had told her they were called Stormtroopers and explained how an old Star Wars arcade game used to sit where Hero's Duty is now back at Litwaks. Now Stormtroopers, apparently, were guarding the entrance to the Villains Lounge.

They hardly acknowledged the pair as they passed and walked through a door marked: Staff Only. Judy chuckled as Vanellope stared at them through the closing doors.

"Don't worry, I don't think they're the same guys who were chasing you when you first came here and if they are don't worry, they're not the type to hold grudges. Believe it or not." She explained as they walk through the sterile white corridor.

"Wait when I first came here-do you all know who I am," Vanellope said sheepishly.

"Well most of the staff do, after that, it's kind of hit and miss, but the princesses told the staff about how we met you and your story. Well, at least what you were willing to tell them…I hope that was ok. We all just like to know who our guest of honor is and how they found their way to us."

"Yeah no that's fine, most of the people in the arcade knew what happened to me. It was kind of a big deal since we all worked together and hung out together. Word got around, and soon everyone knew. Makes sense the same thing would happen here. I just hope I fit in."

"Fit in?" Judy asked.

"Yeah because my whole life I've always been the outcast, the glitch, the stupid little girl who ruined someone's favorite game, even now after everything I've been through I still feel like-"

"Whoever made you made a mistake?" Judy asked Vanellope stopped glitching, not even realizing she had been doing it.

"Yeah…sorry, I must be really bumming you out. Tonight we're supposed to be having fun and-"

"Vanellope, I've been working here for a few years now and I've met all kinds of people. Angsty space wizards, a baby that can shoot lasers from its eyes, a talking candle, a skeleton that tried to be Santa Claus and an all-powerful cosmic deity with a deep love of old Polaroid cameras. There's a lot of us misfits and oddballs in this place. We don't belong anywhere but with each other. You're far from the strangest person that's walked through those doors. So, give this a place a chance. We're all excited to meet you and I really think you'll fit in well here." Judy said as they came to a stop in front of a familiar door.

Vanellope smiled at the rabbit.

"Thanks, Officer-"

"Call me Judy."

"…Thank you, Judy."

"Anytime." She replied as she opened the door to the dressing room and Vanellope was greeted by her friends.

…

"Hey, Uncle Stan? Can I stay a bit longer?"

"Sure Jeremy, I have to make an important call in my office. Once I'm done, we can go."

"Ok, thank you!"

Ralph was exhausted. The arcade was supposed to close fifteen minutes ago, but now Jeremy was intent on seeing his game through to the end. Ralph knew he couldn't just let him win, because he'd just go for another round and that could drag on for an hour. Ralph had been hard on him today, trying to wear him down fast so he would give up and leave.

Despite Ralph's efforts, Jeremy had dodged, jumped over, and _fixed_ everything Ralph threw at him. He had whittled him down to one life in the past half hour but now Ralph couldn't stop him as he chained together level clear after level clear.

Why in the name of all that was good in the world had Jeremey come to the arcade?

"Hey Phillip, it's Stan. Listen Lucas came into the arcade today and-"

The sound of a door closing echoed through the arcade, leaving Ralph and his colleagues alone with Jeremey, who seemed mildly concerned by this development.

"If he's talking to Phillip about Lucas than its going to be awhile. Probably another hour at least…oh well." He muttered before going back to the game.

 _AN_ _ **HOUR**_

The big party started in fifteen minutes! Ralph's eyes darted down to Felix who wore the same alarmed expression. His friends eyes snapped to the left once, them twice. Ralph's eyes narrowed and he nodded grimly.

Felix nodded and chucked his hammer into the air, letting flip over twice before it landed back in his hands. Off-screen, Ralph heard the game-less characters rally to their call.

"BLUE SHELL! WE NEED THE BLUE SHELL!" Someone shouted.

Ralph heard Qbert reply with his signature &*# before seeing him sprint to the tram for train central station. Felix and Ralph knew help was on the way, they just had to keep Jeremey engaged for long enough for it to arrive.

Ralph ripped an A/C unit and hurled at Felix, who gracefully sidestepped the machine as it brought a window washing platform crashing down to earth. Ralph punched a hole in the second A/C unit before pulling out the fan and hurling down at Felix like it was a frisbee. Felix yelped as Jeremey waited for the last possible second to duck under the attack. The fan blade crashed through a window which Jeremey quickly made Felix fix, likely to spite Ralph.

"Where's that blue shell?!" Ralph asked, retreating to the backside of the building to see a small army of game-less Space Invader aliens trying to lift a giant anvil the size of a car labeled GAME OVER to the top of the building, although they were ascending, progress was slow.

"Where's Calhoun?!" Ralph asked them as he threw another A/C unit off the building.

"The water filled meat sack designated as Calhoun is taking approximately 2.5 times longer than normal to arrive. We have elected to assist until her arrival." The aliens responded in unison.

"Ok, thank's guys!"

"Your gratitude is noted meat sack." The aliens replied as Ralph rushed back to his post, leaping into the air and delivering a ground pound that shook the entire building and would almost assuredly change Jemrey's planned ascent path.

Just as expected, Jeremey cursed and was forced to change tactics but made sure to fix a few more windows and holes in the wall as he readjusted. In the corner of his eye, Ralph saw a blue blur dart from the tram station and towards the back of the building.

"Ralph! I heard you guys called for a Blue Shell!" Sonic exclaimed from the ground.

"Yeah, we did! Where's Calhoun? Have you seen her?!" Ralph exclaimed.

"Surge caught wind of what she was doing. He's holding her in GCS telling her she can't interfere with a game in progress."

Ralph groaned as he looked towards the Space Invader Aliens.

"Can you guys maybe go a little faster?!"

"Our silicon-based forms are not built for lifting comically large instruments of metallurgy meat sack. We, as you organics say, our doing our best." They protested.

"Guys please I've been waiting for this day for months. I can't be late or I'm gonna miss the Royal Procession, which Vanellope is in!" Ralph pleaded.

"Your words…they have touched our gelatinous inner membranes. We will tap into our auxiliary power cells. This may be enough to expedite our ascent, although we will be indisposed for several sols." The aliens offered.

"I'll bring you guys all the burger time burgers you want if you help me!" Ralph shouted as he hurled his last A/C unit at Felix who was nearing the top.

"The Collective is an agreement. These burger time burgers will suffice as payment. We shall prepare for our ascent. Stand by while we calculate our required delta V."

"How long will you need?"

"30 seconds." They answered, sounding almost determined.

Ralph knew this would work, Operation Blue Shell was something he discovered a long time ago. Lost his game's code was an attack Ralph had called anvil toss, which according to the story text, was Ralph's ultimate attack. On the last level of the game, before the bonus levels started, if Felix had cleared 70% of the building and had over 100,000 points, Ralph unlocked the ability to hurl an anvil into the night sky before it would come down and wreck everything in the entire middle portion of the screen. If a player didn't dodge it quick enough, they would die.

Obviously, this was never enabled as the developers thought that the attack was incredibly unfair and came out of nowhere although the method to dodging it was the same as dodging Ralph's other big attack, debris shower. You just had to stick to the edges of the screen.

To ensure the attack wouldn't be useable, they put the anvil not on top of the tower but in the field behind the tower itself. Rendering it inaccessible to Ralph. That, of course, assumed Ralph would never have any help.

As Felix neared the top, the Space Invaders shot into the night sky, flying so fast it made Jeremy jump but he didn't appear to recognize what was happening. As the invaders climbed, they bellowed in anger.

"Jeremy Litwak! For keeping the meatsack known as Ralph from the tiny adorable one known as Vanellope. We, The Collective of Planet X, strike so that your high score to forever remain second on the Fix it Felix Jr leaderboard so that one day, your name is condemned to be forgotten in the blackness of the void!"

The Space Invaders released the anvil and Ralph jumped up to meet it as it descended, striking with both his fists. He could hear Jeremy panicking as the anvil fell, the whistling sound warning the player of its imminent arrival echoing across Niceland. Felix barely had time to flinch as the anvil struck him mid-jump and sent him falling back to the floor with a thud. Jeremey cried out in frustration and stepped away from the arcade cabinet. Too demoralized to continue, the young man let the continue counter go down to zero and the game over music played and showed that Jermey's score wasn't second, but third.

Ralph almost felt bad but was too relieved to be free of work for the day and jumped off the back of the tower as the Space Invaders fluttered back to earth. Ralph made sure he carefully caught them one by one.

"From one villain to another, thanks, guys. I owe you big time." He said after catching all two dozen of the tiny killer aliens.

"The Collective is happy to serve. It is as you taught us. There is no other physical form would rather inhabit than our own. For once, The Collective did something…exemplary. Being game less cannot take that away from us."

"You know, you guys are always welcome to help out during Bonus Level time. I'm sure Jeremey will be back."

"Litwak's spawn was a worthy opponent. We are curious as to how he would handle a starfighter, but for now, fighting him here will be sufficient."

"Ralph!" Felix shouted as he ran towards his friend. "We gotta go! We're gonna be late!"

"Right right, hey grab my clothes! I gotta get these guys to Burger Time."

"Ralph…" The Space Invaders groaned. "leave us with the others. You must go to Vanellope. Your ceaseless excitement for this day cannot be for nothing."

"Are you sure guys, it wouldn't take long and you must be starving after lifting the-"

"Resistance is futile Ralph. We have spoken. Go. We will collect on our debt another time." The aliens said sternly, rising into the air one by one as they spoke.

"Tomorrow night then, we're going out to burgers. Thanks again, guys!" Ralph exclaimed as he and Felix ran towards the exit of the game.

…

Vanellope stood behind the curtains, peeking out nervously as she searched for her friends who had yet to arrive.

"Maybe they got lost?" Belle wondered.

"He's never been here before, so it's a possibility," Jasmine replied.

"Maybe we should send someone to go find him? Oh! How about Dash?" Ariel offered, snapping her fingers.

"No good, he's working security tonight." Mulan reminded her.

"How much longer can we stall?" Anna wondered aloud.

"I already 'lost' my shoe once tonight, can't pull that one off a second time," Cinderella told them.

As if on cue, Minnie Mouse joined them backstage and walked over to Vanellope.

"Anything from your friends?" She asked, her voice full of concern.

"Nothing yet, I'd call Ralph, but my communicator is back in the dressing room," Vanellope replied.

Minnie pursed her lips before speaking again with stern, motherly authority.

"Five more minutes. Then we have to start."

Vanellope frowned but nodded quickly.

"I understand." She replied as the lights dimmed and Mike the Microphone dropped down from the ceiling, taking his place on center stage

"Ladies and gentlemen. The show is about to start, thank you all for your patience. Before we begin, I just need to reiterate a few ground rules. There is to be no smoking in any part of the building tonight. There will be no villainous schemes during any part of the show. Any violators will be detained and ejected by our security staff and last but not least, no eating our other guests."

"I don't see him! Are we about to go on?" Vanellope muttered.

"Not yet! We won't be in trouble until Mike introduces you and Mickey." Rapunzel told her.

"And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. The hosts of our show tonight-"

"We're in trouble!" Rapunzel squeaked.

That's when Vanellope saw them being led through the crowd by Judy.

Her heart practically did a backflip.

"It's Ralph! Guys it Ralph he's here! He's here!" Vanellope said, almost shouting as she hopped up and down.

"You're up Vanellope," Elsa said with a smile.

"Break a leg!" Tiana whispered.

"-and our guest of honor, Vanellope Von Schweetz!"

The crowd cheered as Vanellope exited from backstage, with Ralph, Felix, and Tamora being the loudest by far. Ralph and Felix were wearing the same tuxedos that they had worn years ago when Felix got married to Tamora. Calhoun herself was dressed in a beautiful violet evening gown. Vanellope would never get used to seeing her friend without her signature battle armor, even though this was far from the first time she'd seen her without it.

The main dining area seemed to be cut up to 3 distinct sections. The main floor was the largest area, filled with tables and booths, and was where Ralph, Felix, and Tamora were seated. They were tucked into a sea of faces, some familiar but most were new. One table was occupied by a group of teenagers who were conversing with Hiro, who had his tablet tucked under his arm. While at another table there was a towering man dressed in a green pancho, who was sitting with a woman and two kids as well as another man dressed in extravagant red robes like he was royalty.

The next area above was filled with animals of all kinds and resembled an indoor garden more than a dining area. Vanellope could make out two pairs of lions, a large bear sitting upright next to a little kid and she could have sworn there was a dinosaur up there somewhere although how they got him up there was beyond her.

The final floor above was similar to the main floor except the dining tables sat on a balcony that overlooked the rest of the room, with a darkened area behind the seating area that Vanellope couldn't see into. The guests in that section looked down on her like how vultures looked at dead players in Slaughter Race. The most distinctive profiles she could make out from here was a pirate with a hook hand, a woman that was half octopus, and a woman in all black with scepter who sat tall and proud amongst her peers, almost like she wanted to be seen.

"Hi everybody! We've got a big show tonight to welcome you all back to new and improved House of Mouse but first, we've got something special planned. So to start us off I'm going to turn the show over to our guest, Vanellope!" Mickey announced, signaling her to start her act.

"Hiya everyone, for those of you at the back, my name is Vanellope. I recognize a few of you from the first time I came to Oh My Disney. So let me start by thanking you for having me, it's awesome to be back. I was actually invited this time so that's pretty cool too."

The crowd chuckled and Vanellope 's confidence grew.

"Accompanying me tonight is my friend, Wreck-It Ralph. Yes the same Ralph who accidentally made like a million versions of himself and almost, literally, broke the internet. But he's my best friend so what can you do?"

The crowd laughed and clapped as Ralph stood up and waved to everyone, a spotlight slowly turned to focus on him before he sat back down.

"Next to him is my friend Fix it Felix Jr and his lovely wife Tamora Calhoun. In case you're wondering, yes you may squeal in glee about the height difference, Felix doesn't mind."

Felix and Calhoun stood up as well, drawing continued applause from the crowd for few more seconds before everyone's attention shifted back towards center stage.

"So let's, officially, get tonight started with the moment you've all been waiting for The Royal Procession! First I'm going to get into more comfortable clothes so give me a sec-"

Vanellope glitched out of her ballgown and earned some oohs and awes from the crowd. She was in a slightly more spruced up version of her new slaughter race outfit which lacked bandages, and her cloak was missing the dust and grime that made it look like she had spent years in the wastes.

Vanellope pointed to the house band, comprised of Donald's nephews: Huey, Dewy and Louie. "Alright fellas give me a beat, I'll get us going!"

As the boys got started, Vanellope turned to the audience and started a steady clap.

"I'm gonna need your guy's help. Start clapping." She instructed, and the audience complied. Once they got going, Vanellope smiled and glitched to the first mark on stage right.

"Roll call!" She shouted, taking her cloak off and tossing it aside as the princesses came out in their casual clothes, clapping to the beat Vanellope and the House had set.

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

Vanellope got the princesses to line up, seven on each side like they had practiced and in the desired order. Once they were lined up, Vanellope glitched to the back of the human alley they had created and walked between the two columns of royalty, coming to a stop at the edge of the stage.

 _My name is Vanellope!_ She sang, earning some cheers from the audience.

 _ **Yeah?**_ The other princesses asked, still clapping.

 _Racing is in my code_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _I'm the fastest girl you've ever seen_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _I'll never be slowed!_

 _ **Roll Call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

Vanellope returned to her spot at the back of the alley as the next princess walked towards the front of the stage. Moana was wearing dark jeans and a dark blue varsity jacket with a giant white stylized fish hook on the chest.

 _My name is Moana_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _I was chosen by the ocean_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _The Heart of Tafiti was restored_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _Thanks to my devotion!_

 _ **Roll Call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

The Procession continued as Anna and Elsa both walked up to the front of the stage together. The sisters both wore darkened jeans and high top shoes but Anna top was a t-shirt and flannel combo while Elsa wore a sky blue turtleneck sweater and a short cape that was apparently made of ice.

 _My name is Elsa_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _I've got the power to control ice and snow_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _The haters say I'm overrated_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _But I just tell them to let it go!_

 _ **Roll Call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

Her sister followed without even skipping a beat, and a wild holler could be heard from the back of the room. Anna suppressed a laugh as she started to sing.

 _My name is Anna_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _I see you've met my sister, she's real swell_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _Come visit us sometime, our home is a heck of a town._

 _ **Yeah?**_

' _Do you wanna build a snowman?!' we'll yell!_

 _ **Roll Call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

As the sisters returned to their spots, Anna turned a blew a kiss to a blonde-haired man who was sitting with a reindeer. Vanellope was able to gather that he must have been Kristoff, who Anna had gushed about before.

 _My name is Merida_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _Got my mom turned into a bear_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _Didn't want a prince I told her_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _Just my bow in hand and the wind in my hair!_

 _ **Roll Call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

Vanellope was beaming as she lifted her arms into the air as she danced in place. Much to her surprise, everyone stood up and followed her lead. Still clapping the beat as Vanellope glitched across the dining room and up to the villain's lounge. The collection of rogues and evil sorcerers were so far refusing to partake.

"You know guys, my best friend is a villain." She started, extending a hand to the scariest looking woman she had ever seen in her life.

"Just because you're all the way up here doesn't mean you can't party." She offered.

The woman just leaned forward, her voice steely calm and barely audible.

"I know you're new here child, so allow me to introduce myself. I am Maleficent. I poison princesses and I turn crusading young heroes to ash but I do not _party_."

Vanellope swallowed hard as a muscular man in a yellow and purple outfit stood up.

"Well didn't you try to kill Princess Aurora because you weren't invited to a party?"

"Kronk…" His companion, a frail old woman in an extravagant dress, hissed.

"Well, I'm just saying you can't say you don't party when you tried to kill someone who didn't invite you to their party... Just doesn't make a whole lot a sense." He protested.

Vanellope turned to her new-found ally, leaving Maleficent to her brooding.

"I didn't know that Kronk. Thank you for your insight. Havin fun so far?"

"Well yeah, I just wish I could dance." He grumbled.

Vanellope scoffed.

"Kronk, you wanna dance man? You dance, don't let anyone tell you not to party." She told him.

"I'm gonna be just like Mr. Bacon!" Kronk exclaimed. "Peter is going to be so excited when I tell him about this!"

Vanellope nodded, pretending to know who he was talking about.

"I'm sure he will Kronk." She told him

He beamed at her as he started to dance in place and clap, earning a groan of disgust from his companion. Nearby, Vanellope could see another burly guy who was doing his best to ignore her and brood…except he was tapping his foot.

She pointed and locked eyes with him.

"I'll be back for you buster!" She exclaimed before glitching back to the stage as the girls got the procession going again with Rapunzel and her pink cardigan over a white blouse paired with the standard dark jeans.

 _My name is Rapunzel_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _Left tower with nothing but a frying pan_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _But my friends had my back and I found my way home_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _That's when my life began!_

 _ **Roll Call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

As Rapunzel returned to her spot, she gave Tiana a high five before she started her walk. The spotlight wasn't needed for Tiana whose white sparkly dress and matching hat that actively illuminated her.

 _My name is Tiana_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _Grew up down in New Orleans_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _Waitin' tables, chasin' dreams_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _Stop by my palace, and I'll show you what happily ever after really means!_

 _ **Roll Call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

Mulan got a cheer from the crowd as she walked forward, the gold dragon on her red varsity jacket glowing as the spotlight struck it.

 _My name is Mulan_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _When the Huns attacked, my dad was called on to fight_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _Convinced the army I was a man with just by putting my hair in a bun_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _But with cunning and courage, the Huns were defeated and now my dad is with us here tonight!_

 _ **Roll Call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

Vanellope guided the crowd and slowed the beat down for the next princess who was wearing her traditional garb. Even the band changed the song to a quitter softer version of itself.

 _My name is Pocahontas_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _My story, it's a little complicated_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _But at its core, it's about love and hatred._

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _So perhaps it's time to take a second a look because it lessons cannot go unstated_

 _ **Roll Call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

The music sped back up as the next princess moved to take center stage. Jasmine was another princess who was still in clothes from their homeland except her clothes were a dark blue rather than her lighter signature sky blue with an ornate white and gold sash as an accessory.

 _My name is Jasmine_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _My story is known far and wide_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _If you haven't heard, remind me to tell you if we have time_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _Al and I can tell you all about it on a magic carpet ride!_

 _ **Roll Call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

In the corner of her eye, Vanellope could see the burly man from earlier standing up and walking towards the back of the lounge. In the blink of an eye, she zipped upwards to intercept him, cutting off his escape.

"Told you I'd be back!" She told him. "You gonna dance now?"

"No." He grumbled flatly.

"Hm, well that's disappointing. I can't blame you though. I'd be intimidated as well." She said with a sigh, shoving her hands in her jacket pockets.

"Intimidated?" He scoffed.

"Yeah, I mean look at Kronk. The guy's groovin over there. How could anyone possibly hope to stand up to that?"

"I could…If I wanted to." He insisted.

"Is that so?" Vanellope pressed, her keen instincts telling her to keep up the attack.

"Yes."

"Don't let her bait you," Maleficent growled, not even turning around.

"Well I for one would like to see that, but if you're going to let Miss Hot Topic over there boss you around-"

"Gaston-" A nearby pirate captain warned, picking something from his teeth with his hook hand.

"No one is the boss of me. I will not dance because I do not wish to."

"Don't be embarrassed, Gaston. There's no one in the world who can dance like me." Kronk told him.

The villain inhaled sharply and Kronk's companion put her head into the table and groaned as Gaston whipped around. That did it.

"No one dances like Gaston!" He declared, walking over to Kronk who was grinning from ear to ear.

"Oh boy! A dance fight, haven't had one of these since high school."

"Looks like my work here is done," Vanellope said with a sly grin, glitching back down the stage as the procession neared its end.

 _My name is Belle_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _My story starts with a magic rose,_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _From there, there was a castle and a beast._

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _An adventure worthy of my favorite books, but it's_ _ **my**_ _story, not some fictitious prose._

 _ **Roll Call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

The warm yellow of Bell's blouse traded off well with the cool violet of Ariel's pullover sweater which was adorned with the image of a snowman. Securing her spot as the most casually dressed of the procession.

 _My name is Ariel_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _When you chase a dream, you will stumble and fall_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _I've made my mistakes, and I've left the world I knew for a fresh start_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _I don't know what'll come next, but I'm not afraid despite it all!_

 _ **Roll Call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

Most of the house was on its feet as Aurora made her way to the front of the stage in a dark red version of her classic dress. The oldest of the Princesses had elected to keep their signature dresses on for the finale.

 _My name is Aurora_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _For those who don't know, an evil sorceress put a curse on me._

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _Then there's fairies, a prince, a spindle, even a dragon!_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _Quite the fairy tale, wouldn't you agree?_

 _ **Roll Call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

Vanellope laughed as the dance fight in the villain lounge intensified before her eyes went down to Ralph who was watching her with pride. She beamed at him and waved as the show carried on.

 _My name is Cinderella_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _Under my stepsisters and my stepmother,_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _I slaved away, cooking and cleaning all day_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _But that all changed with the help of some friends, a pumpkin, and of course my fairy godmother!_

 _ **Roll Call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

The Princesses were clapping now as well, as opposed to just being backup singers. Vanellope looked up to Horace's control booth and gave up the thumbs up. The dining tables were pulled into their storage bays in the floor, turning the main dining area into a dance floor as Huey, Dewey, and Louis started transitioning into another song. Now the rest of the House was singing as well.

 _My name is Snow White_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _Why yes it's me, when it comes to princesses I'm the original_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _Welcome to the House of Mouse, it's so nice to see everyone_

 _ **Yeah?**_

 _I can assure you tonight will be far from typical!_

 _ **Roll Call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

The Princesses broke their formation and lined up side by side with Vanellope in the middle belting out the chorus one last time before the song ended.

 _ **Roll Call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

 _ **Shabooya sha sha shabooya roll call!**_

The crowd burst into applause as Vanellope and her friends bowed before they all encouraged her to go to see her friends. She squealed with joy and glitched over and through the crowd, flying into Ralph's waiting arms like a cannonball.

"RALPH!" She shouted, hugging him as tightly as she could and crying tears of joy.

They stayed that way for a minute or two before Felix and Tamora danced their way over to them.

"Uh excuse me, where's my hug?" Tamora asked, prompting to Vanellope to glitch over and wrap her arms around the space marine's neck.

"I missed you!" She exclaimed.

Calhoun playfully ruffled her hair.

"I missed you too kiddo."

"Don't forget me!" A voice called from down below.

"Felix!" Vanellope shouted, jumping down onto the handyman and nearly flattening him.

"Hey, jellybean!" He winced, holding her tightly.

"Felix…" She murmured, blushing.

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you-"

No no its…I just never thought I'd miss being called that." She explained.

"No matter where you go or how much butt you kick, you'll always be my jelly bean." He told her, her only response was to nuzzle into the hug before they both got up and the song winded down.

…

After several songs, everyone sat back down after their table remerged and Goofy and his army of penguins started dinner service, bringing out one of three appetizer options listed on the menu. Vanellope had insisted on the onion ring tower, which everyone else quickly agreed upon after the little girl gave an impassioned speech about onion rings.

The table they were sitting at was the largest in the dining area and was occupied primarily by Disney royalty, save for Vanellope and her friends who were all wedged between Rapunzel and her husband Eugene and Anna and her husband Kristoff, Elsa, their reindeer Sven and last but not least, Olaf.

As they waited for their food, Vanellope was telling her friends about the tour she had gotten when she had first arrived.

"It was awesome! Judy took me down to this big vault where they had all this old stuff that they don't use anymore. Like these old parade floats that are covered in Christmas lights, and this robot that used to fly spaceships and a big laser gun lookin thing hooked up to this computer they found in some old arcade. Oh, there was even this spooky iron cauldron was whispering stuff-"

"What did it say?" Ralph asked, leaning closer.

Vanellope shrugged.

"No idea." She replied as Snow White exchanged a nervous glance with Belle.

"I remember when I first saw that thing," Mulan said with a small shutter. "Those voices gave me nightmares for a week."

" _So_ Vanellope! What else did you see down there?" Calhoun asked, noting her husband's discomfort.

"Well there was this guy walking around down there, he was carrying a box and he seemed to be looking for something."

"What did he look like?" Kristoff wondered.

"It's hard to say, his head kept appearing and then disappearing."

"Wait, he wasn't on a horse, was he?" Jasmine asked as Judy moved a paw to her radio.

"No, he had a cane though."

The Princesses breathed a sigh of relief and Judy relaxed.

"Oh him? That's just the Hatbox Ghost." Cinderella explained.

"Who's he?"

"Just a guy who died after his wife chopped his head off," Anna said flatly as a small group of penguins carefully brought over a towering stack of onion rings to the table.

Felix was deathly pale.

"Are there a lot of ghosts in this place?" He asked quietly.

"Tonight, there should be at least a thousand or so. They're probably hanging out in the rafters. It's their favorite spot." Judy said matter of factly.

"No way really?! Can we meet them? I always wanted to talk to a ghost."

"Vanellope-"Calhoun said gently.

"Do you guys have like a Ouji board lying around or-"

" _Vanellope_." Ralph insisted a little more hesitantly this time.

"I could probably just glitch up to the rafter and get em to come down and hang out with us."

" _ **Vanellope!**_ " Ralph and Tamora snapped, drawing the racer's attention to Felix who was practically under the table at this point.

"Ohhhhh yeah, I forgot you got trapped in that haunted mansion and your brother had to come to save you that one time." She muttered before smiling sheepishly. "Sorry!"

"It's ok…let's just change the subject," Felix told her as giant onion ring tower was sampled by everyone at the table.

"What are you guys gonna get?" Ralph asked, tapping his menu.

"The double bacon cheeseburger with garlic fries is calling my name…" Vanellope muttered.

"Are you gonna be able to eat the whole thing by yourself?" Felix asked.

"Felix…buddy…pal, are you kidding me? It's _me_." She chided.

"It wouldn't be the biggest burger she's eaten," Ralph added.

"Wait seriously?" Rapunzel asked.

"Oh yeah totally," Ralph confirmed. "If the picture on this menu is to be believed, it won't break the top five, maybe even ten."

Eugene's jaw dropped along with Felix's as Vanellope looked to Ralph.

"What are you gonna get Chumbo?"

"The lasagna sounds really good." He admitted.

"I think I might have that too," Tamora said before looking to Felix.

"It looks pretty big though, wanna share?"

Felix shook his head.

"I think I'll have the burger as well." He declared before flagging down one of the penguins.

"Are you sure Felix?" His wife asked before he nodded enthusiastically.

"I'll be fine." He assured her as everyone at the table placed their orders.

"If Vanellope can do it then so can I!"

…

Felix hadn't taken into account that Vanellope was built like a vacuum cleaner attached a black hole. A being that could eat almost indefinitely so long as there was food to eat. In the aftermath of dinner, he watched slack-jawed in terror as she and Ralph looked over the dessert menu while sat in his chair in a food coma, having barely finished half of his burger.

The dining room had settled down now that everyone was fed, conversations were now staying at the tables they had started at rather than drifting to the surrounding ones. As another cartoon on the big screen wrapped up Webby had joined Huey, Dewy and Louis on stage as their vocalist, singing a cover of _You've Got a Friend in Me_.

"Hot fudge sundae buddy?" Vanellope asked her friend who nodded enthusiastically.

"Let's do it!"

"While we're waiting, let's bring out presents!" Tamora exclaimed, pulling a large box in red and white wrapping paper out from under the table. Ralph did the same, and Vanellope gasped.

"I forgot your presents in the dressing room! Be right back!" She yelped before glitching away.

"Oh Felix, Calhoun, I'll give you guys your present while we're waiting on her," Ralph said, handing the pair a large box in golden wrapping paper.

"Good call brother," Felix replied as Tamora handed him a small silver box from her purse.

"Back!" Vanellope shouted, arriving with three boxes in hand and a Santa hat sitting on her head.

"Whose opening theirs first?" Felix asked.

"Can I go?" Vanellope asked, earning her some endearing smiles. It was her 6th Christmas ever, after being alone on the holiday for years and years. It was a feeling Ralph and Tamora knew all too well.

"Sure!" Felix replied before she grabbed her first present and shredded the wrapping paper. Inside the military grade crate, she discovered a pair of black boots with metal soles and a led light on both sides of the heel. They were surprisingly lightweight for how bulky they appeared.

They're magnetic boots. Usually, they're used for EVA work, but I figured you could use them when you're helping Shank set up ambushes. That way you can get the drop on any players you run into."

"Awesome!" The little girl exclaimed, glitching over and giving Calhoun a hug.

"Thank you!"

"There's one more thing in there, it's from Felix." She told her.

Vanellope darted back to her seat and dug around in the box for a minute before emerging with a dark brown tool belt, packed with tools that would make maintaining and even upgrading her car a lot easier.

"Whoa…"

"After you left, I remember Ralph saying how you wanted a toolbelt like mine so you could work on your car when you're out and about rather than trying to track down a garage that wasn't swarming with players."

"That…isn't that your Dad's belt? Ralph asked.

"Yeah, we had to make some adjustments so it would fit Vanellope but it's ok. Dad always said I could give it to my firstborn child once it was time."

Vanellope had already glitched into Felix's arms, toolbelt around her waist and hugging him tightly.

"Thanks, Dad…" She whispered as he hugged her back.

"Merry Christmas Jellybean." He replied as she turned back around, asking for Ralph to pass her a present which she then handed to Calhoun who methodically tore open the wrapping paper to reveal the gift inside.

What Calhoun found inside made her heart melt. A fuzzy white teddy bear with two distinct eyes. A button eye and a candy cane mint. The bear had light caramel stains from his time in Diet Cola mountain and the fur was tangled and matted in some places but it was still one of the cutest things she had ever seen.

"Before I left, I remember overhearing Felix and Ralph talking about your nightmares. How you kept reliving…well you know…that day. I wanted to help but I wasn't sure how. At first, I thought I should get you a self-help book but I know you hate those because they come across as super condescending. Then I remembered Theodore. He's gotten me through a lot of rough nights, especially when I was alone. I'm hoping now he can help you too."

Calhoun blinked several times before pulling Felix and Vanellope into her embrace.

"Thank you Vanellope, I'll take good care of him."

"Thanks, he's a really awesome bear."

"I'm sure he is."

She released them as Ralph handed Vanellope the next present.

"Here you go Felix, hope you like it."

Felix smiles and opened the gift, silently admiring Vanellope's choice of blue and gold wrapping paper. Slowly he pulled out a brass pocket watch and flipped it open and gasped. The watch, in its center, was marked with the initials F. . Above the clock was a nice picture they had taken a few years ago of all of them having milkshakes and burgers at Burger Time.

"My dad's watch!" Felix exclaimed, "I thought I lost this-"

"When you were fighting cybugs in Sugar Rush? Yeah, Tamora told me. That's why I sent the racers and Ralph looking for it.

"It took forever, but we found it!" Ralph added.

"It was all beat up at first, but my friend Felony got it fixed up good as new." She explained as he smiled fondly at the picture.

"I know its hard to be happy all the time, especially when you spend half the day dying every five minutes. So, I hope that whenever you're having a long crappy day you can look at this and remember that we're your family and we love you." She said with a smile.

The pair exchanged another quick hug as Tamora put Ralph's present for them on the table. Vanellope glitched back to her seat as the pair opened their present. Felix squealed in glee and Tamora laughed at her husband as he pulled a karaoke machine from the box.

"I know how much you two love karaoke night at Tappers- "

"It's only the best night of the week!" Felix exclaimed.

"So, I figured you'd guys would want a machine for when you host your own parties," Ralph explained.

The couple thanked Ralph as they placed their new pride and joy below the table.

"Now you open yours partner," Felix said before Ralph carefully opened the tiny present to find a golden key. Ralph examined it closely before realizing that key was marked 2001. 20th Floor, first room.

The only room.

"Is this?"

Felix nodded.

"The key to the penthouse. So, you and Vanellope can party in style when she comes to visit." Felix began "It took some convincing, but after a nice long conversation with Gene."

"Followed by a _much_ shorter one," Calhoun added sharply.

"Gene relented and ceded the penthouse to you," Felix concluded.

"Guys…" Ralph murmured. "I'm sorry, I wish I had gotten you something better now. Compared to this a Karaoke Machine is nothing."

"It's the thought that counts Ralph. It's not a competition." Felix reminded him.

Ralph sighed before giving them a nod.

"Ok…thank you so much you two."

"Love ya brother. Never forget that." Felix reminded him before the gift giving continued as Vanellope prepared to open her gift from Ralph. After shredding the wrapping paper and prying open the box, Vanellope pulled out a large blanket that depicted some of their best moments together in 8-bit style. Building Vanellope a go-cart, Vanellope giving Ralph his medal, late nights at Burger Time, racing light cycled in Tron and more. There were even some blank areas, presumably so that more memories could be added in later. 

"I remember when you lived in Diet Cola mountain and you slept under candy wrappers and now in Slaughter Race, you have real thin blankets that don't keep you super warm. So, I decided to get you a custom weighted blanket. Dr. Mario said it should help you sleep better, and it might even help with your nightmares." Ralph explained as she wrapped the blanket around herself.

"It's beautiful Ralph. Did you make it yourself?" She asked.

"Yeah, Cinderella and Aurora helped me out." He replied sheepishly.

"Oh, don't be so humble Ralph! We gave you some pointer and you took off from there." Cinderella explained as Vanellope pushed her present closer to her friend.

"Go on, open yours." She insisted.

Ralph complied and opened his present, which slid from its box and onto the table. He carefully picked it up with his fingers and recognized it as a multi-color bracelet. He slipped it onto his wrist and ran his fingertips over the beads. Some were yellow, others were red, blue, there were was even one with candy cane stripes and another looked like a jack-o-lantern.

"So, you know how I was telling you about that big expansion my game is planning, and how they're expecting the player base to double once it comes out. It may be hard to get ahold of me, so Yesss helped me make this for you." Vanellope reached out and put to fingers around an orange bead "You just press two fingers around a bead and, presto!"

A hologram of Vanellope appeared on the table, standing stiff as a board with her arms pinned to her sides.

"Wakey wakey Major Body Odor! You're gonna get out there and you're going to show those players why you're _the_ Wreck-It Ralph. The baddest bad guy who's ever lived. Yeah, I said it Bowser, whatcha gonna do about it? Fall off a bridge again?" Holo-Vanellope chuckled as she broke her serious façade. "Ok seriously though, get up stinkbrain. It's time to start your day, you got this."

The hologram vanished and the two friends exchanged a glance.

"Do you like it?" She asked.

"Like it? I love it!" He exclaimed as Vanellope relaxed and smiled.

"Did you like your gift?" Ralph asked her, prompting her to nod enthusiastically.

"This is one of the best Christmas presents I've ever gotten. Thank you, Ralph." She replied as the penguins brought their desert, along with mugs of hot cocoa with candy canes as stir stickers, offering them to people who hadn't ordered dessert.

As snow began to fall from the ceiling, prompting everyone to ooh and ahh as they enjoyed their desert, Webby stopped singing as the band rearranged themselves for the next song.

"Ok everyone, we'll be singing a classic tonight. I'm sure most of you know the words but for if you really haven't heard this song before, it's called the _Best Christmas of All_ and the lyrics will be up on the screen over the mainstage."

As the song started, Vanellope glitched up onto her friend's shoulder and rested her head against his, the pair humming the melody as they took turns eating their ice cream as the snow continued to fall.  
…

A few hours later, the party was over, and everyone had gone their sperate ways. Vanellope went back to Slaughter Race, sharing a long hug with Ralph before she left. Felix and Tamora had gone back to their house, wishing Ralph a merry Christmas as they departed. Which left Ralph by himself, heading up to his new penthouse apartment.

He made his way through the front door with a grunt, careful not to drop any of his presents before heading to his room and flopping onto his bed. Despite all this time, saying goodbye still wasn't any easier. The time they had spent together had flown by. It was hard to believe she was gone already.

He held up his arm and looked at the bracelet Vanellope gave him. His eyes were drawn to the candy cane bead. He reached up and gently pressed it with his fingers, and his best friend materialized next to his bed, wearing a Santa Claus hat.

"Hey Ralph, I remember one Christmas, a few years ago, after Gene was being a jerk one night, I found you at home. You practically barricaded yourself in your house and I couldn't get you to come out, so I decided to start singing Christmas carols. Just to see if I could find your favorite and I did!"

Vanellope smiled bashfully and Ralph felt himself relax. He wasn't sure why, but sound was a big comfort for him. Crickets were what helped him sleep on his stump, after that is was the creaking floorboards in his house. Now, it was the voice of his best friend.

"So, I'm going to sing it for you, in case you ever need a pick me up for the holidays and I'm not around."

 _You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen_

 _But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?_

 _Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer had a very shiny nose and if you ever saw it you would even say it glows…_

Ralph sighed and shut his eyes, listening to his friend's voice as he drifted off to sleep.

…

A.N-Sorry this obvious Christmas special was so late! I still hope you guys like it! Who remembers the House of Mouse? I loved that show, especially the Christmas special. I hope it becomes a legit restaurant at one of the Disney Parks one day. The Roll Call song was tough because I haven't seen any of the classic princess movies (except for Mulan) so I hope I did a good job with each of the verses. Rhyming and song writing is tough! Next time we're flipping back to Vanellope's perspective, hope to see you all there! Until next time! Thanks for reading.


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